Which Pokemon Type is Best?

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There are a total of eighteen different Types of Pokemon in Pokemon Go. Each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. A Pokemon may have either one or two different Types depending on the species of Pokemon.

With 151 different Pokemon and eighteen different Types to choose in Pokemon Go, it can be difficult deciding which Types of Pokemon are best for your Team. Now, I can't say which Pokemon Type would be best for each individual Trainer, as there are too many variables (Pokemon captured with highest CP, Types of Pokemon already captured, existing Pokemon team Type composition, etc.).

However, I can advise which Pokemon Type is Best. Taking my previous analysis surrounding the Type effectiveness of all 151 Generation One Pokemon, I decided to take into consideration the Strengths and Weaknesses of all Types from both a Offensive and Defensive perspective. I won't go into too much detail on the Best Offensive Pokemon Type and the Best Defensive Pokemon Type, but feel free to check these out if you have not already done so.

So, Which Pokemon Type is Best?
To decide which Pokemon Type was best, an average was taken of both Offensive rankings and both Defensive rankings. Then both rankings were combined into a single Overall Ranking, creating a list of all eighteen Pokemon Types (Best to Worst).

Type

Attack Rank

Defensive Rank

OVERALL Rank

GHOST

9.5

2

1

DRAGON

9

4.5

2

ELECTRIC

5.5

8

3

PSYCHIC

4.5

10

4

ROCK

6

9.5

5

GROUND

5

11

6

FLYING

7.5

9

7

WATER

9.5

7

8

STEEL

12.5

6

9

DARK

8.5

11.5

10

POISON

14

6.5

11

NORMAL

11

10

12

GRASS

10

11.5

13

ICE

8

13.5

14

FIRE

12

12.5

15

FIGHTING

12

13

16

BUG

13.5

12.5

17

FAIRY

13

13

18

From the chart above, it can be seen that Ghost is the Best Pokemon Type of all 151 Generation One Pokemon. It is interesting to note that Ghost Type Pokemon are overall the Best Defensive Type as well. Although Ghost Types are not overly powerful from an Offensive perspective, only Ghost and Dark Type Pokemon are Super Effective against Ghosts (2% of all Pokemon), which makes Ghost Types very difficult to take down. Although there are not an abundance Ghost Type Pokemon, try your best to get one on your team!

The second and third best Pokemon Types are Dragon and Electric respectively. Dragon Pokemon are actually the second best Defensive Type and eighth best Offensive Type. Electric Pokemon are the sixth best Defensive Type and third Best Offensive Type. These top three Best Pokemon Types are well balanced Offensively and Defensively.

Which Pokemon Type is Worst?

The chart above lists not only the Best Pokemon Types, but also the Worst Pokemon Types. It should be noted that the "Worst" Types of Pokemon do have an advantage over certain Types of Pokemon. However, the Pokemon at the bottom of this list will find themselves in unfavorable battles more often than those on top of this list.

Based on the Type Effectiveness analysis, Fairy Pokemon happen to be the worst Pokemon Type. Offensively, Fairy Types are Super Effective against Fighting, Dragon and Dark Types. Unfortunately, these Types only make up approximately 7% of all Pokemon. On the Defensive side, Fairy Type Pokemon are only resistant against 15% of all Pokemon (Ranked 14 out of 18).

The second and third worst Pokemon Types are Fighting and Bug. Bug Type moves and Fighting Type moves are "Not Very Effective" against more than half of all Pokemon (54% & 57% respectively). From a Defensive perspective, Bug & Fighting Types rank in the bottom five of all other Pokemon Types.

Which Pokemon Types are Best for my Team?

The goal of any Pokemon Go player should be to create a Pokemon Team with a variety of Types. This article is not suggesting that your team should consist only of Ghost, Dragon and Electric Type Pokemon. Nor is it suggesting that a team should never have any Fire, Fighting, Bug or Fairy Type Pokemon on it.

A team should never be comprised of only one or two different Types of Pokemon. Instead, each Pokemon on a team should help to balance that team's overall Type weaknesses. For example, if a team only has Rock, Ground and Fire Type Pokemon, an opposing Water Type Pokemon could possibly take out the entire team single handedly. Instead, opt to switch out one of those Pokemon for a Grass Type (Super Effective against Water Types).

Feel free to use this article as a guide when creating your Pokemon team. However, please note that only by playing and battling in Pokemon Go will you find the optimal Pokemon Type composition that works best. Everyone will have a unique Pokemon team that is ideal for them!

What Pokemon Types will your team consist of? I'd like to hear your thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment below.

7 comments
:

Anonymous
said...

There's no pure Ghost type in the game. The closest you'll get is the Gastly evolution tree, and it has Ghost/Poison as a typing. So, according to your rankings, if people start running Gengar, they'll be weak to both the first and second best attacking types (Psychic and Ground). Why would I pick them when a little over 18% of the game can hit it super effectively?

Nice analysis and, if the game were being played in a vacuum, super effective. However, it's not in a vacuum; you can't play it as if all the pokemons have the same appearance in the game in one locale as they do in another locale. Here in Tucson, AZ, we are light on water types in the game, and heavy on fire types, etc. The best strategy, then, is to sample the local gyms. Find out which pokemons are being used as defense in your area, and build a team against the typical local defense, with a few pokemons in your collection that you swap out for particular gyms. If most of the gyms you want to attack are heavy on fire and electric, then load up an attack team of ground types, then use a mix of ground and fire to defend that gym.

Definitely a good start, but dual types and move types will definitely have an impact on this. Also, not all moves of the same type are equal; moves have different values. The highest value I've seen for a fast move is 15, and the lowest is 2! So a "super effective" 2 is not really effective at all....

very nice analysis, but there is something struck me and i would like to ask, what about pokemon that belong to specific element, but has a skill that categorized in different element. For example, i checked Golduck belong to Water element in your page, but in game, Golduck has some skill that categorized as Psychic. Is that mean, Golduck or Psyduck has 2 element as well or it is water pokemon with some Psychic abilities ?